Pentapod reviewed Illegal alien by Robert J. Sawyer
Review of 'Illegal alien' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I've read other books by Sawyer and would have to say this is my least favourite so far. Not that it's terrible, but maybe it's a little dated now (being over 20 years old), both in reference to technology and also in general treatment of alien communications. After my joy of watching "Arrival" and the sophisticated explanations of the difficulties of communication between species so very different, I found the utterly simplistic way that alien communication is dealt with in this novel to be jarringly unbelievable. Also, it's less pure science fiction and more of an American courtroom drama; and while I enjoy the former, I tend to avoid the latter so the last half of the book definitely dragged on a bit. So, massive suspension of disbelief required at many points in the book, and while the premise was entertaining and probably a bit more original 20 years ago, …
I've read other books by Sawyer and would have to say this is my least favourite so far. Not that it's terrible, but maybe it's a little dated now (being over 20 years old), both in reference to technology and also in general treatment of alien communications. After my joy of watching "Arrival" and the sophisticated explanations of the difficulties of communication between species so very different, I found the utterly simplistic way that alien communication is dealt with in this novel to be jarringly unbelievable. Also, it's less pure science fiction and more of an American courtroom drama; and while I enjoy the former, I tend to avoid the latter so the last half of the book definitely dragged on a bit. So, massive suspension of disbelief required at many points in the book, and while the premise was entertaining and probably a bit more original 20 years ago, the effort didn't really pay off for me. Not terrible, and if you like courtroom dramas you'll probably like it more than I did, but definitely not one of Sawyer's best.
